Avoiding Amputation In Cancer Is Evaluated

AP

Published: December 8, 1984

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7—
Many cancers in the arms and legs no longer require amputation if doctors use an aggressive combination of treatments, experts have concluded.

A special panel of the National Institutes of Health said Wednesday that amputation might still be required for some cancers in arms or legs but that many patients could avoid this through a combination of surgery and other treatment.

The panel said such treatment could improve quality of life without hurting chances of survival.

Adult patients diagnosed as having sarcomas, however, should seek limb- sparing treatments only at the 30 to 50 centers around the country with the expertise, the panel said.

''This is a highly advanced treatment and requires special care,'' said Dr. Walter Lawrence Jr. of the Medical College of Virginia, the conference chairman.

There is still a need for surgery, as well as amputation in difficult cases, Dr. Lawrence said, and doctors will judge cases individually.

Over 15 years, the specialists said, doctors have tried radiation or anticancer drugs along with surgery.

The cancers of concern are sarcomas, which account for less than 2 percent of all adult cancers annually in the United States. There are two types: osteosarcomas, or bone cancers, which account for 1,900 cases annually, and soft tissue sarcomas, which represent 4,800 new cases a year.